Show Report: On Track, 2019

'Twas a gorgeous sunny day.

I went to Folkestone with my buddy Paul yesterday, to On Track, at The Leas hall on the seafront. I didn't take any pictures of the countless superbly made models. Indeed, I didn't even really spend the time admiring them that perhaps I should have. All the effort expended on them, and I just walked past!

I've been to Euro-Militaire a couple of times with Paul, and enjoyed it. But I thought I should try On Track, as it's more armour/vehicle focussed, whereas at Euro-Militaire it's more figures and all sorts, and a lot less armour, etc. And I'm very glad we went, as it really is much more up my street.

The Fujimi Kübelwagen plus mc/sidecar, my first purchase of the show.

The main reason for going was not to admire others' work, to buy more models, and - I hoped - a few related bits and bobs. And I wasn't disappointed. I had a list of things I was interested in, and was able to get a whole bunch of stuff I've been lusting after. I'd even gone to the trouble of raising some cash specifically as spending money.

The primary thing I was after was rear-echelon vehicles: trucks, cars, etc. I also wanted some vehicles of a similar ilk that could either be military or civilian. In addition to this there were some kits I'd seen browsing online that I was able to purchase. One, the Phanomenon Granit by Attack, was on my list. Another, the V2 and Hanomag SS100 transporter, by Takom, was something I'd only just noticed online, but really wanted. I didn't expect to be getting it at the show.

This looks like it'll be a lot of fun to build!

Two near identical staff cars, from Ace.

Most of my purchases were from Dutch dude Rob Tas of Tas Models, a thoroughly nice guy with an excellent selection of kits. Most of his kits at the show were 1/72, and there were a lot of German WWII models. And his prices were great. Paul bought a brand new Roden WWI truck and gun/limber kit off him for £10, which another stall at the show was selling secondhand for £27!!! This other stall also had a nice Vomag bus, and an Einheitsdiesel truck. I really wanted both, the latter being one of the vehicles on my wish list. But again, they were - in my view - overpriced. So I left them alone.

I also wanted some written and pictorial stuff, for reference. But I had to be careful: Avid Publications had £65 off me for just one book last time I was at the Leas (that was for To The Gates of Moscow, by Türk/Urbanke). I was primarily looking for stuff in the same area as I was re models, softskins, and suchlike. I'd seen online and was intrigued by a new book on German staff cars. Ironically they had copies on the overpriced secondhand kit stall. I had a look at it, but, along with a number of other titles on the Avid stall, it seemed too expensive for the amount of material.

Useful ref for truck building.

I did find a Nuts And Bolts title, pictured above, on German trucks, which, at £26.50, whilst far from cheap, seemed at least to be decent value, in terms of the quantity and variety of material. As well as beaucoup de contemporary photos, there are line diagrams, colour plates, and even model build examples, covering a wide and interesting range of German trucks. So I bought it, with a view to perhaps scratch-building some vehicles using it.

I would've liked to have bought a kit or two (their propaganda halftrack appeals, with the loud-hailers on the roof!), or at least some ancillary stuff (fuel cans, ammo boxes, etc.), from Model Trans Modelbau. But once again, high prices put me off. My most extravagant spending at the show was on two sets of resin Panzer crew, at £8.50 each, from Dan Taylor.

Einheitsdiesel with flak, and Phänomen Granit.

Fingerprint decals, inc. softskins markings, and Dan Taylor panzer crews.

One thing I was really hoping I'd find was a set or two of German WWII softskin decals. In particular the rectangular info markings that you see on the doors of trucks, RSO, and suchlike. Pictured above is a set I bought off a trader (who?) who otherwise specialised in Allied WWII materiel. Apparently Fingerprint, who made these decals, are now defunct. Dan Taylor said he's going to be bringing out a suitable set some time soon.

Anyway, Paul and I enjoyed the show. Paul only bought two kits, both WWI, and nowt else ('crept a couple of beers; cheers Paul!), whilst I bought quite a bit of stuff. Definitely a good show for those of us who like building mini-military stuff. They have a lot of 1/35 and other scales as well, and the various traders cover all sorts of eras.

But for me it was about having a big range of choice in 1/72 WWII, and German stuff mostly. And I was far from disappointed. Indeed, if I'd had more money I'd have splurged considerably more! Tas had the 1/72 Hobbyboss German super railgun, at £140... I'd love to buy/build that!

(Not Quite!?) Euro-Militaire, 2017

Another wonderful sunny model-fest by the sea.

My pal Paul introduced me to Euro-Miliatire in 2016, which turned out to be its final year under the that name. Now it's the Euro Miniature Expo! There were some wonderful models on show. My interest in German WWII stuff guided me in my photography, as usual.

The biggest and most noticeable difference, to me at least, was the lesser no. of exhibiting models/modellers, with almost half the lower floor display area empty. Paul tells me the show has been shrinking over the years anyway. Apparently there was a time it spilled out of the venue and into the surrounding street!

Traders wise, however, it seemed pretty much the same as 2016. At least as far as I could discern.

I doubt I'll go again, to be honest. It was enjoyable ebough. But I overspent (as usual!).  My reason is that, in truth, it's not exactly geared to my particular tastes/requirements. As a (sort of/theoretical) wargamer I need more 1/72 land warfare stuff. And more generally, I just prefer shows that cater more to my other collecting interests, i.e. more book stalls!

A terrific diorama.

Love the weathering and the interior detailing!

Anyhoo, I bought four boxes of different Armourfast 1/72 Shermans, two Images of War titles (one on Shermans, for ref with those imminent Armourfast builds), a 1/72 Italeri Gotha transport (mit bonus Kunelwagen!), unt ein großes Buch an der Ostfront: Als Sanitätsoffizier im Rußlandfeldzug.

This book, whilst not cheap, is an amazing resource.

Paul, unlike me, went for the larger scale single figure things that's more at the heart of this show, buying a bunch of nicely sculpted white metal knights. All one-piece castings. Below are some of the amazing figures that were on show. Once again I've concentrated on German WWII stuff, which remains one of the more perennially popular categories with other modellers, it seems. Fine by me!

There were of course loads of models belonging to other categories, many of which were simply superb. So here are a few that I really liked, despite them falling outside the remit of my normal interests. The Fiat and Bentley below are amazing, and the weathering on the tractor below is terrific.

Euro Militaire, 2016 (Sunday, 18th Sept)

View from the Leas venue terrace. Weather was nice! [1]

Having become somewhat more of a model builder than a figure collector/painter in recent months, when a pal suggested a trip to Folkestone for Euro Militaire, 2016, I said 'yes please'.

A nice model of the German's Mickey 'Maus' tank. [2]

As something of a Boney-phile I like that their logo is a portrait of the man himself. But, although there were a good deal of Napoleonic subjects on display in the competition and display areas, there was very little of that era for sale in a form I felt tempted by. 

I did buy an MB 54mm Hussar at the last Salute I went to, and a few stalls had the figures from that range, but I was determined to try and remain 'on track' and 'on scale'! There was one guy with a lot of mostly second-hand models, who had some vintage Airfix Napoleonics in 54mm, the nostalgia value of which tempted me. But I thought they were a bit pricey... and then I ran out of money anyway!

F-F-F-Folkestone's f-f-f-famous f-f-f-funicular lift. Powered by water and gravity, so I was told.

My buddy said the show was a lot smaller than the last time he went, and that he heard one of the organisers muttering about how Brexit might've discouraged some of our continental brethren (and sistren!) from making the trip this year. 

That'd be a terrible and ironic shame if it were true, as, just as the name of the show itself suggests, this is an instance of UK folk being friendly and welcoming to the idea of internationalism, at least as far as the near continent is concerned.

No prizes for guessing the title of this competition entry!

The truth of the matter for me is that, despite greatly admiring what modeller's do in larger scales, single figures, and realms such as fantasy, etc., I'm really much more of a dyed-in-the-wool small scale historical guy; I like masses of troops and tanks, based on real conflicts. 

So, although I admired much of what was on display - it's stunning, frankly, so how can one not be bowled over? - nevertheless, my chief concern was to acquire some small scale armour and figures.

In the end, however, I bought mostly planes! This might partly be the influence of the buddy with whom I travelled, Paul Crossman, who's primarily been making 1/72 planes in recent years. But it's also been influenced by films I've watched - from 12 O'Clock High to the Battle of Britain - and books I've been reading.

My swag from the show! 

In both Hitler's Soldiers and The War In The West, the role of the Luftwaffe was looked at in some detail, the latter title devoting a fair chunk to the way in which Germany's air-arm's supremacy was crucial to both their initial victories in Poland and France, and subsequent extensions of conquest such as Norway and Greece and the Balkans.

Even though the Battle of Britain was both short and relatively small scale, it was clearly crucial in stopping Hitler gambling on invading Britain, and thus knocking out the last West-European adversary he had failed to either conquer or otherwise neutralise. Anyway, all this got me more and more interested in buying and building model planes to add to my growing 1/72 WWII collection.

Up until the weekend of Euro Militaire, this had been a very small scale and sporadic development, with as many WWI aircraft winging their way to my worktable as WWII machines. Then I bought and built a Spitfire and Messerschmit on our recent short summer breaks - at the time I was reading the Battle of Britain segment of The War In The West - and that's when the bug really bit!

Then, whilst shopping with Teresa in Ely, I spotted a Battle Of Britain 75th anniversary set by Airfix, reduced from £45 (a bit overpriced!) to £30, and snapped it up. Despite knowing I was off to Euro-Militaire the very next day!

And at the show itself, I found that - whilst there was tons to gawp at in admiration - most the traders weren't selling stuff geared to my particular and quite narrow current interests. Indeed, there were only three stalls that had the sort of things I was after. One of these had tons of stuff that I liked the look of, and I promptly spent all my remaining cash on a stash of mostly German WWII aeroplanes.

One of only two vehicle purchases of the show!

One of the other stalls (Mr. Models, I think?), from whom I'd made my first purchases of the day - more WWII German planes! - would've had a lot more of my money, if their card-machine had worked. Perhaps I ought to be grateful it didn't?

In the end I only bought two vehicles, and both of those were a bit off my usual map, being as one was a Russian fuel-tanker truck (see above pic.), and the other a German bus. Figure-wise I got a pack of Zvezda 1/72 German HQ figures, plus a big box of Airfix soft-plastic Luftwaffe figures, inc. both pilots and ground crew, and another Zvezda set, also of Luftwaffe ground-crew.

Very nice figures. Just a shame there aren't a lot more of them.

Plenty of figures. But not so nicely posed, and poses are repeated too much for my liking.

I had hoped someone at the show might stock the Preiser 1/72 Luftwaffe ground crew figures. But I couldn't find anyone selling their ranges. Of the two sets I purchased, the Zvezda are much better sculpted, and being hard plastic are also easier to work with if converting (not that they need it!). But they are also a lot more expensive.

The Airfix Luftwaffe groundcrew, although described on the box as 1/72, are much smaller than the Zvezda figures. Are they actually 1/76, simply re-boxed/-branded as 1/72? The repeated poses mean many figures are either going to be redundant, or will require some conversion. 

I have converted soft plastic figures before, with what appeared at the time (to me!) to be both ease and success. This set is going to tax those skill rather more, methinks!

My 1st conversion attempt with the Airfix LW figs:

Paul advised me to 'pin' my conversion parts. [3]

The toolbox carried at a more realistic angle.

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NOTES:

[1] I was told that on a clear day you can see France. When I was told this, the far horizon was shrouded in a heat-haze. But when Paul took this pic, it looked a lot clearer. Somewhat to my chagrin, however, I still couldn't quite make out the French coast.

[2] I only took my iPhone, camera-wise, and that wouldn't let me take many pics (even with me deleting loads!). So I only got two or three pretty poor pics. This one is one of them.

[3] Last time I did plastic figure conversions I just cut and superglued, and it seems to have worked OK. Pinning is a lot more fiddly. I hope it also proves to be sturdy!?